LOS ANGELES 
The twins were 7, shy and scared. Talking was tough, and describing what happened nearly impossible.

So the prosecutor preparing them to testify against the father they said molested them borrowed a dog named Jeeter.

“It was a last-ditch effort to try to build rapport with my kids, who are terribly shy,” said Kelly Dempsey, the twins’ mother. “The prosecutor had no idea how to get through to them. ... He just believed down to the depths of his soul the girls had been wronged and he wanted so badly to find justice for them.”

In Seattle 10 years ago, Jeeter became the first professionally trained dog to help a child testify, experts said. Dogs have been used with thousands of victims and witnesses since.

Today, there are 41 courthouse dogs working in 19 states and several more being considered, but some challenges are working their way through the courts, driven by attorneys who claim the dogs are distractions or sympathy magnets.

In 2003, Jeeter was going to drug court once a week with King County deputy prosecutor Ellen O’Neill-Stephens. The rest of the week, Jeeter belonged to her son Sean, 21, who has cerebral palsy.

When her colleague asked to borrow Jeeter for the twins, the bonding was instant.

“Because of Jeeter and having him there, I don’t ever think about ‘Oh, it was scary walking in and seeing our dad after a while,’ ” said Erin, now a high school sophomore. “I don’t remember the bad. I only remember Jeeter.”

(The AP normally doesn’t use names or photos of molestation victims, but the girls are allowing their first names and photos to be used because they want dogs to be available in courts. Their mother has a different last name.)

Jeeter shadowed the girls. “I remember sitting in the chair. Between questions, he’d put his head in my lap and cuddle a little. One time (during a practice court session), he came into the room dressed as Zorro,” Erin said.

When there were questions about anatomy, the girls used Jeeter.

“A good dog provides decreased anxiety for any victim, be it a child, adult or elderly. If it gives them the opportunity to focus and find their voice, how is that bad?” Dempsey asked.

There were no objections to Jeeter in the twins’ case, and demand for a dog was so high that in 2004, the district attorney’s office got a full-time service dog, Ellie.

Jeeter and Ellie were trained by Canine Companions for Independence, headquartered in Santa Rosa, north of San Francisco.

CCI has trained about 230 “facility dogs,” including courthouse dogs and those working at burn centers, hospices or schools. The dogs are mostly Labrador or golden retrievers or mixes, said Jeanine Konopelski, CCI’s national director of marketing.